The Siberian Dilemma

Starred review from October 7, 2019
MWA Grand Master Smith’s stellar ninth outing for Arkady Renko (after 2013’s Tatiana) finds the maverick detective, who serves as an investigator of special cases for Zurin, the Moscow Prosecutor, growing increasingly concerned over his inability to reach his girlfriend, investigative journalist Tatiana Petrovna, after she fails to return to Moscow as scheduled from an assignment. Arkady knows only that she went to Siberia. Meanwhile, Zurin orders Arkady to travel to Siberia to oversee the prosecution of Aba Makhmud, a Chechen terrorist. Zurin directs Arkady to insure that Makhmud, who tried to kill the Moscow Prosecutor, receives a lengthy prison sentence, and threatens to harm Arkady’s stepson if he fails to do so. Arkady is keener to go to Siberia once he learns Tatiana is probably still there, doing a story on Mikhail Kuznetsov, the so-called “hermit billionaire,” who may run against Putin in the next election. The stakes rise after Renko arrives in Siberia and becomes involved in investigating a Russian oligarch’s murder. Smith does his usual superior job of blending plot and setting. This is a must for any crime fiction fan interested in the underside of Putin’s Russia. Agent: Andrew Nurnberg, Andrew Nurnberg Assoc.

October 15, 2019
The latest in the Russian crime series featuring detective Arkady Renko (Tatiana, 2013, etc.) takes the reader to forlorn Siberia and frozen Lake Baikal. Renko is Investigator of Special Cases in Moscow. When his girlfriend, Tatiana--an investigative journalist who receives plenty of hate mail and death threats--doesn't arrive home as expected on the Trans-Siberian Express, he's worried about her. She had gone to Irkutsk, deep inside Siberia, to research a story about oligarch Mikhail Kuznetsov, "who is not only running for president...he's running for his life." It's a story that could make her famous but could also get her killed, so Renko wants to know she is safe. Totally wrapped up in her project, she neglects to let him know she plans to stay there a while longer. So when Renko's superior sends him to Siberia to report back about Kuznetsov, "a known enemy of the people," and to interrogate a Chechen prisoner accused of attempted murder, the trip fits in well with his need to find Tatiana and reassure himself that she's OK. She doesn't communicate much, though, making her "a very difficult person to be in love with." On the flight to Irkutsk he meets Rinchin Bolot, who quickly becomes his factotum, or jack-of-all-trades. "What's a factotum?" Renko is asked. "I'm not sure, but I seem to have one." Bolot is a great character with a wry sense of humor. More importantly, he is a many-faceted asset to Renko: "Bolot was an iceberg, all bright surfaces and hidden depths." For his part, Renko is decent, smart, and appealing, hardly a stereotypical tough guy. And when he's confronted by an enormous bear, his shooting skills could use sharpening. The story appropriately ends with the Siberian dilemma, where one person faces a terrible choice. Everything just feels Russian, as though the author hikes to his hut from the taiga, warms his frozen fingers at the wood stove, pours himself a vodka, and sits down to type. This is vintage Martin Cruz Smith. Fans of Arkady Renko will be pleased.

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Starred review from November 1, 2019
Put Arkady Renko near the top of your list of favorite cynics in crime fiction. And, yet, despite the Russian investigator's bedrock conviction that the Siberian Dilemma (After you fall through ice, do you climb out and die from exposure in seconds, or stay in the water and die from hypothermia in five minutes?) captures the essence of the human condition, he's always been a sucker for love, and with love comes a kind of fatalistic optimism. (Arkady will climb out of the ice every time: a few seconds might be enough to save a lover's life.) In this follow-up to Tatiana (2013), Arkady still has it bad for devil-may-care investigative reporter Tatiana Petrovna, who has disappeared in Siberia while working on an expos� of that region's oligarchs. Conveniently, Arkady's corrupt bosses assign him the busywork task of transporting a prisoner to, yes, Siberia. Finding Tatiana proves simple enough, but extracting her from the clutches of two oligarchs proves something else again, even as Arkady combines forces with two Oscar-worthy supporting actors, his prisoner (a Pushkin wannabe) and a cab driver turned all-around factotum who always knows a guy who knows a guy. Ah, but this is Siberia, and Smith does set-pieces as well as anyone in the genre, so get ready for the Siberian Dilemma to jump from metaphor to chilling reality in multiple ways (exit pursued by a bear). This is Smith at his absolute best: black humor, brown bears, and gray souls.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)